Shock Wave Propagation in an Inhomogeneous Medium Using Finite Differences

Abstract

One-dimensional propagation of a strong shock wave in a medium with an exponentially varying density is studied numerically. Solutions using various formulations of the energy equation are compared with the self-similar analytic solution. It was found that only the conservative energy equation predicts the correct shock propagation; the temperature and pressure formulations, even with artificial viscosity are far less satisfactory. This result holds over a wide range of different spatial resolutions and for different finite-difference algorithms.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1975
Accession Number
ADA016192

Entities

People

  • Dennis G. Colombant
  • H. H. Gardner

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Boundary Value Problems
  • Classification
  • Coefficients
  • Difference Equations
  • Differential Equations
  • Dynamics
  • Energy
  • Energy Conservation
  • Equations
  • Partial Differential Equations
  • Physics
  • Security
  • Shock Waves
  • Transport Ships
  • Wave Propagation
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)